Vincent TRINEL
Level Designer
Doom Maps
Platform: PC
Team size: 1
Role: Level Designer
On my free time, I like to create Doom maps with the game's level editor. Here's a selection of maps I've published for the Doom community.
Workflow
Here is the workflow I followed and which details a little more the realization of a map.
Intentions
For each map, I start by creating a intention that will drive the overall design the map.
I can also use this intent to build a kind of story that will gives a context for the player.
Weapons & enemies
Then I made a list of weapons and enemies that could be usefull for the intention of the map. I don't think that a good level needs every weapons and enemies of the game. I truly believe that "Less is more".
Flow and intensity
Before I start drawing the paper map, I often prefer to think about the flow and the intensity of the level. Sometimes I draw a scheme that will represents the big steps of the map.
Paper map
Once I had an idea of the rythm and a strong intention, I started by drawing a 2D top-down plan of the map. This gives me the opportunity to think about the overall placement of the areas of duels, enemies, weapons, etc., but also to think about the navigation in the level.
Building the map in the game's level editor
After all its "pre-production" phases, I started the building of the map with the level editor and regularly test it in order to highlight all the problems that I had not thought of or could not see during the previous phases. When I completed the map, I did a lot of playtest with my friends to highlight all kind of problems and weaknesses of the map, and I iterated on those problems.